華嚴經傳記 1.4

1.4

案此經是毘盧遮那佛法界身雲。在蓮華藏莊嚴世界海。於海印三昧內。與普賢等海會聖眾。為大菩薩之所說也。凡一言一義。一品一會。皆遍十方虛空法界及一一微塵毛端剎土。盡因陀羅網微細世界。窮前後際一切劫海。及一一念具無邊劫。常說普說無有休息。唯是無盡陀羅尼力所持。非是翰墨之所能記。此乃圓滿法輪稱法界之談耳。但以本不離迹。是以處寄人天。時臨二七。以迹不離本。九會即遍十方。二七該于十世。以本迹無二。令無限即限限即無限。如此經中海雲比丘所持。普眼修多羅。以須彌山聚筆大海水墨。書一一品。不可窮盡。又如真諦三藏云。西域傳記說。龍樹菩薩往龍宮。見此華嚴大不思議解脫經。有三本。上本有十三千大千世界微塵數偈四天下微塵數品。中本有四十九萬八千八百偈一千二百品。下本有十萬偈四十八品。其上中二本及普眼等。竝非凡力所持。隱而不傳。下本見流天竺。蓋由機悟不同。所聞宜異。故也是以。文殊普賢親承具教。天親龍樹。僅覩遺筌。小聖同坐而不聞。大士異趣而先覺。聖教之行藏。器局之優劣。斷可知矣。又為佛去世遠。眾生報劣。色力念慧悉皆減損。於此下本。無力具受。遂隨力隨樂。分寫受持。或具十萬。大本猶在。或三萬六千。如晉朝所譯。或餘四萬。此周朝所翻。或分其品會。別成部帙。如支流所辨。或漸湮滅不聞其名。皆由器致耳。亦如曦陽麗天明無優劣。但眼淨具瞻目眩稍味盲絕不見。日豈非朗耶。今此亦爾。廣略在器。本法無虧。

Upon examination, this sūtra is the dharmadhātu body-cloud of Vairocana Buddha, preached for the great bodhisattvas within the sāgaramudrā-samādhi in the Padmagarbha-alaṃkāra-lokadhātusamudra together with the holy assembly vast as the ocean, including Samantabhadra and others. Every single word and every single meaning, every single chapter and every single assembly, pervades the empty space of the dharmadhātu of the ten directions, each and every dust mote, the tip of every hair, and every land, exhausting the minute worlds of Indra's net and reaching the oceans of all kalpas through past and future, each thought-moment possessing boundless kalpas, constantly preached and universally preached without cessation. It is sustained solely by the power of inexhaustible dhāraṇī, not something that can be recorded with brush and ink. This is the wheel of the complete Dharma, a discourse matching the dharmadhātu. Yet, because the root is never separate from the traces, the location is placed among humans and devas, and the time is set during the second seven [days]. Because the traces are never separate from the root, the nine assemblies pervade the ten directions, and the second seven encompasses the ten time-periods. Because the root and traces are non-dual, the boundless is made bounded, and the bounded is boundless. As in this sūtra, the Samantamukha-sūtra held by the monk Sāgaramegha, with brushes heaped like Mount Sumeru and ink like the great ocean's waters, could not be exhausted in copying each chapter. Furthermore, as the Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha said, records of the Western Regions state that Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna went to the Dragon Palace and saw three versions of this Avataṃsaka Great Acintya-vimokṣa Sūtra: the upper version contains verses in number like the dust motes of thirteen thousand great-thousand worlds and chapters in number like the dust motes of the four continents; the middle version contains 498,800 verses and 1,200 chapters; and the lower version contains 100,000 verses and 48 chapters. The upper and middle versions, as well as the Samantamukha-sūtra and others, cannot be sustained by ordinary mortal power and remain concealed and untransmitted. The lower version is seen circulating in India. This is because capacities and awakenings differ, so what is heard must vary accordingly. Therefore, Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra directly received the complete teaching; Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna only glimpsed the leftover fish-traps. The lesser sages sat in the same assembly yet did not hear it; the great beings were in different realms yet awoke to it first. The concealment or manifestation of the holy teachings and the superiority or inferiority of capacities can certainly be known from this. Furthermore, because the Buddha's departure from the world is now distant and the retributive capacity of sentient beings is inferior, their physical strength, mindfulness, and wisdom have all diminished; with regard to this lower version, they lack the capacity to receive it in its entirety. Consequently, according to their capacity and interest, they copied and upheld it in parts. In some cases, the full 100,000 verses of the large version still remain; in some cases, it was 36,000 verses, as translated in the Jin dynasty; or over 40,000 verses, as translated in this Zhou dynasty; or its chapters and assemblies were divided into separate fascicles, as distinguished under the branch currents; or it gradually fell into oblivion and its title was no longer heard—all this is brought about by the capacity of vessels. It is also like the bright sun shining in the sky: the brightness has neither superiority nor inferiority, but clear eyes behold it completely, dazzled eyes see it faintly, and the blind see nothing at all. How could the sun not be brilliant? Here it is just the same: extensive or abridged depends on the vessel, while the root Dharma suffers no loss.